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—Description—A well-known shrub, growing in clumps and forming thickets on the borders of ponds or rivers, or in swamps. It bears flowers of a reddish-green colour in March and April. The bark is blackish grey, with small, corky warts, the inner surface being orange-brown, striated. The taste is astringent and somewhat bitter. It is almost odourless.
The name Alnus rubra should no longer be applied to Alnus serrulata, though some authorities retain it. That is the correct name of the Oregon Alder.

—Medicinal Action and Uses—Alterative, tonic, astringent, emetic. A decoction or extract is useful in scrofula, secondary syphilis and several forms of cutaneous disease. The inner bark of the root is emetic, and a decoction of the cones is said to be astringent, and useful in haematuria and other haemorrhages.

When diarrhoea, indigestion and dyspepsia are caused by debility of the stomach, it will be found helpful, and also in intermittent fevers.

It is said that an excellent ophthalmic powder can be made as follows: bore a hole from 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter, lengthwise, through a stout piece of limb of Tag Alder. Fill the opening with finely-powdered salt, and close it at each end. Put into hot ashes, and allow it to remain until the Tag is almost charred (three to four days), then split it open, take out the salt, powder, and keep it in a vial. To use it, blow some of the powder upon the eye, through a quill.

About Bona Dea: Bona Dea’s name literally means “good goddess.” Her
energies come into our lives at the outset of this month, offering all
good things, especially fertility and a greater appreciation of the
goddess within each of us.

Traditionally, Bona Dea is a women’s Goddess who received offerings of
wine in exchange for prophetic insights during her observances.

To Do Today: On March 1st, February was escorted out of Rome with a
flourish of adaptable activities. Exchange sweet gifts as the Romans did
to ensure yourself of a sweeter future. Greet a friend with Bona Dea’s
name to invoke her blessings on them. Put up a grapevine wreath
fashioned like a heart ( or other symbol of something you need ), and
leave a glass of wine on your altar to honour Bona Dea’s presence in
your home and your life.

In Rome, female slaves would get this day off, and the head of the house
would wait on them. In modern times this equates to switching roles for
a day at home. Whoever normally gets up and fixes breakfast gets to
sleep in, whoever normally does chores gets to go out and socialize, and
so forth. Bona Dea appreciates the considerate gesture as much as you do
and will rain her goodness upon your home.

from 365 Goddess – A Daily Guide on the Magick and Inspirations of the
Goddess
by Patricia Telesco

Goddess Meditation
This is the day when dawn
receives our saffron cakes
in her sacred temple.
This is the day which honours
the bond between sisters
and the freedom of all women.
There is no slavery today at the threshold
of the temple. Today all women
are joined in the joys of motherhood:
for we hold up, not our own, but
our sister’s children tothe sun.
~ Ovid, Fasti

Today is the day that, in ancient Rome, was known as the Matronalia, the
great spring feast of motherhood. On this day women attended rituals at
the shrines of Mater Matuta, The Dawn Goddess, whom they greeted by
holding up their small nieces and nephews to the rising sun. This is
beautiful image of the joining of all the bonds between sisters into the
circle of family, for women thus shared in the fruitfulness of their
sisters’ lives and symbolically took responsibility for all the children
of the community.
Community does not bond us now as tightly as in ancient times. There is
freedom in contemporary life, a freedom that few experienced in earlier
times. But the price of that freedom is the loneliness that comes from
being severed from connections with, and responsibility for, others. As
spring moves forward, remember the joyous festivals of old, and reach
out to friends and family to reaffirm the bonds of human love.

from The Goddess Companion – Daily Meditations on the Feminine Spirit
by Patricia Monaghan

As you grow spiritually, you are on a wonderful journey of self-discovery. You will increasingly understand the mysteries of the universe and learn tools of personal transformation. Connecting to your higher self will allow your life to become effortless and joyful. Your higher self is that part of you that is continually connected to the light.

As you open up to the higher dimensions of yourself, you will be able to lift the veils of illusion and see the world through the eyes of your higher self. You will link your throat with your higher self and express truth and love in all you say. Your mind will be illuminated and your emotions will be harmonious as they are blended with the light of your higher self.

As you allow yourself to connect in higher ways you create more loving relationships, allowing trust more, and opening your heart more. You begin to share new levels of intimacy and have deeper more meaningful connections with your loved ones. What many of you are looking for another-compassion, understanding, and love-you will find first in your connection to your higher self.

You will be able to create rapid positive changes in your physical body, and gain greater skills in healing yourself. Your higher self is limitless. It is not pulled down by the denseness of the earth plane , and therefore when you meditate AS your higher self you begin to receive much love, inspiration, oneness, and guidance.

Your higher self is a dynamic, growing life force consciousness. It exists in a realm where all beings are untied as one multidimensional consciousness. Your higher self knows why you have the challenges that you have, your higher self is the essence of who you are. It is the wise teacher within you.

A Meditation For How To Meet Your Higher Self

For this meditation, you can be sitting or lying. It is preferable if you lie on your back with a book under your head and your knees slightly bent toward your body. If you wish to sit, then make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground.

Then close your eyes and take a deep breath (into your navel). On the in breath, imagine a clear pure white light entering your body from above and exiting (going thru your body) into the ground. This is a very general cleansing, you can adapt this so that you clear each chakra at a time if you wish.

Then move your awareness to each body part individually (toes, individual toes, sole of foot, calf muscles, thigh muscles, back, arms, fingers, palms, etc.). Make sure that when you become aware of the body part that you consciously relax it. The chakras are energy points that allow you to link to your spiritual side. There are 7 major chakras, and several minor, (i.e., your hands and feet). These major chakras are: base, spleen, solar plexus, heart, throat forehead, and the crown/top of your head.

The base chakra is at the bottom of your spine. Its color is red. The spleen chakra located near the spleen is orange. The SP chakra is just above your navel, and it is yellow. The heart chakra is at your heart, and it is green or pink. Your throat chakra is at the base of your throat and is blue. The brow, forehead, third eye chakra, is purple or indigo. The crown chakra is at the top of your head and is violet.

When you become aware of each body part, make it relax. If you find that it hurts, then breathe light thru your mouth and into the body part. Allow total relaxation. Do this until you feel peaceful, focused, and physically comfortable. Total relation is dependent upon how aware you are of your body and how easy you find it to let go of each body part.

Adjust your posture if you need to, so that you feel the light that pulled into your head flowing more easily thru your body, up and down your spine. Straighten and lift your upper chest on an in breath, do not push this, do this so that your back is slightly straighter. This aids your emotional body and thinking in higher ways.

The next step is to ask your spiritual guides to be present. To do this, you can say it aloud, or think it. Ask that their presence be felt so that you know they are there. Feel the joy, love, and peace surrounding you, they are here to help you. If you feel uncomfortable or blocked, just relax a little longer until you feel the negativity going away. Breathing the light is important in helping your energy flow.

Now, it’s time to meet your higher self. Imagine your higher self (HS) in the distance, beginning to come toward you. You can picture your higher self in whatever way feels most comfortable to you. Greet and welcome your HS, invite it to come closer. Mentally ask your HS to assist you in making your connection to it a bit stronger.

Feel the radiance of its love surrounding you and embracing you. Feel lines of light coming to you from your HS, and as these lines touch you, feel your vibration increase. You and your HS are now beginning to merge and become one. Feel your molecules and atoms merging with your HS, as if you are reclaiming part of your energy. Let your HS merge with you even more until your energy patterns are taking on the radiance of your HS. You and your HS are now one. As your HS, open your breathing to create a better flow of energy in your body. Adjust your posture so that you are sitting as your HS. As your HS, adjust your shoulders and chest to reflect your confidence and your wisdom.

Think of a situation you want guidance about. As your HS, you can give yourself advice about any situation. Imagine that you are a wise teacher, consultant, and give yourself advice. You may want to speak out loud, or write down your answers. Ask your HS (you) if you have any other messages-maybe on your spiritual growth, your higher purpose. You have effectively met with your HS now. This is a place where you can do many things. You can send energy to friends, create new positive situations around yourself, you can heal your body. In this state you may see many forms of light around you. You may speak with your guides, and ask them if they would like to give you a message. Your guides can take you to places of learning that are not on this earth, and you can learn much. To come out of this state, it is best done slowly. You must become aware of each body part but this time, move it a little. Breathe deeply, and just accustom yourself to the environment again.

A little about guides….

When you are born, you have asked some of your spirit friends to help you in your up and coming life…that’s why we have guides.

We all have guides, but those who are materially inclined do not have many. You may have some in waiting…The more spiritual work you do, the more you acquire.

Your guides are not in the 3rd dimension, and you can ask to make their presence felt, ask their names, and you can tell everyone else they are not welcome.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Combine all of the ingredients, knead the dough by hand until the dough holds together do not over knead. Flour your hands Pat the dough flat to 3/4-inch thickness out biscuits with a biscuit cutter. Bake on a greased baking sheet for 13 minutes, or until golden brown, when they come out of the oven brush with melted butter. Makes 18 Biscuits

Put some lucky stuff in a jar (soaking in alcohol or oil) and keep the jar near your toothbrush. While you brush your teeth with the right hand, give the jar a few vigorous shakes with your left hand. Silently greet the day and wish for good things for yourself and your loved ones. Visualize yourself happy and successful all day long.

Into the jar you can place such common kitchen favorites as rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, and (if you have it) star anise. Some people keep the jar in the kitchen and shake it while the coffee is brewing. Or you can use other things besides or instead of those ingredients, such as mojo beans, High
John the Conqueror, frankincense and myrrh, or ingredients especially suited to your current principal interest, such as love of money. For money use bayberry, lucky hand root, snakeroot, even the “money plant”.

“May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence. May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses. My you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon. May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path. May the flame of anger free you from falsity. May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may anxiety never linger about you. May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul. May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention. May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul. May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.”

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—History—The English Alder is a moderately-sized tree or large shrub of dark colour, usually growing in moist woods or pastures or by streams. The leaves are broadly ovate, stalked, and usually smooth. The catkins are formed in the autumn, the fruiting ones having scales rather like a tiny-fir-cone; the flowers appear in early spring, before the leaves are fully out. The woody, nearly globular female catkins are the so-called ‘berries.’ The trees are often grown in coppices, which afford winter shade for stock on mountain grazings without appearing to injure the grass beneath, and can be cut down for poles every nine or ten years.
The wood is much used. When young it is brittle and very easily worked. When more mature it is tinted and veined; in the Highlands of Scotland it is used for making handsome chairs, and is known as Scottish mahogany. It has the quality of long endurance under water, and so is valuable for pumps, troughs, sluices, and particularly for piles, for which purpose it is said to have been used in sixteenth-century Venice and widely in France and Holland. The roots and knots furnish good material for cabinet-makers, and for the clogs of Lancashire mill-towns and the south of Scotland the demand exceeds the supply, and birch has to be used instead. It is also used for cart and spinning wheels, bowls, spoons, wooden heels, herring-barrel staves, etc. On the Continent it is largely used for cigar-boxes, for which its reddish, cedar-like wood is well adapted. After lying in bogs the wood has the colour but not the hardness of ebony. The branches make good charcoal, which is valuable for making gunpowder.

The bark is used by dyers, tanners, leather dressers, and for fishermen’s nets.

—Dyeing—The bark is used as a foundation for blacks, with the addition of copperas. Alone, it dyes woollens a reddish colour (Aldine Red). The Laplanders chew it, and dye leathern garments with their saliva. An ounce dried and powdered, boiled in three-quarters of a pint of water with an equal amount of logwood, with solution of copper, tin, and bismuth, 6 grains of each, and 2 drops of iron vitriol, will dye a deep boue de Paris.

Both bark and young shoots dye yellow, and with a little copper as a yellowish-grey, useful in the half-tints and shadows of flesh in tapestry. The shoots cut in March will dye cinnamon, and if dried and powdered a tawny shade. The fresh wood yields a pinkish-fawn dye, and the catkins a green.

The leaves have been used in tanning leather. They are clammy, and if spread in a room are said to catch fleas on their glutinous surface.

—Constituents—The bark and young shoots contain from 16 to 20 per cent of tannic acid, but so much colouring matter that they are not very useful for tanning. This tannin differs from that of galls and oak-bark, and does not yield glucose when acted upon by sulphuric acid, which, it is stated, resolves it into almine red and sugar.

—Medicinal Action and Uses—Tonic and astringent. A decoction of the bark is useful to bathe swellings and inflammations, especially of the throat, and has been known to cure ague.

Peasants on the Alps are reported to be frequently cured of rheumatism by being covered with bags full of the heated leaves.

Horses, cows, sheep and goats are said to eat it, but swine refuse it. Some state that it is bad for horses, as it turns their tongues black.

About Binah: In Cabalistic tradition, Binah embodies spiritual
discernment, love, stability, and awareness. As the third sephirah of
the Tree of Life, Binah becomes a divine mother, guiding her children
toward attainment and comprehension. Her name literally translates as
“the understanding’ which gives form and function to all other aspects
of life. Bees are sacred to her ( as divine messengers ), as are lilies
( white in purity ), and lead ( which gives us a foothold in reality ).

To Do Today: Binah’s energy was present in 1934 when Brotherhood Day
began to bring people of diverse faiths together in an atmosphere of
tolerance and respect. The thrust of the day is universal brotherhood,
accenting our likenesses instead of our differences. So, take time today
to learn more about other faiths and foster an open exchange of ideas.
Perhaps visit a church or temple and observe quietly, seeing that the
Goddess is there, too.

To promote strong spiritual roots in your own life, as well as the
understanding to nurture those roots, try this spell: Take a piece of
lead ( maybe from a pencil ) and hold it in your dominant hand, saying:

“Binah, walk with me; understanding impart. Every day be part of my
heart.”

Write this down and put the incantation in your shoe so that Binah will
walk with you wherever you may be.

from 365 Goddess – A Daily Guide of the Magick and Inspiration of the
Goddess
by Patricia Telesco

Goddess Meditation

The desert wind lends you wings
to fly across the land.
You fly across the land
bearing the decrees of heaven.

We all bow to you, trembling,
fearful of your stormy radiance.
We all bow to you,
knowing you are the epitome of justice.
Bowing to you,
we weep inlamentation at our wrongdoing.

Sighing great sighs,
we walk around your shrine and pray,
Sighing great sighs,
we attempt to follow your precise path.

~ Song of Akkadian Princess Enheduanna to Goddess Inanna

We are all part of the universe, all children of the Goddess. So how can
we possibly do wrong?
Is not every imaginable action part of the universe and therefore
somehow just?

It is not as simple as that, for some actions unite us more fully to the
cosmos while others seperate us from it. All people who have ever
existed have made similar distinctions between right and wrong, good and
evil. The Goddess, like any good mother, assists her children in
choosing right and punishes them when they do not. She can be wrathful
when we fail to satisfy her, the ancient prayers tell us. When we pull
away from her in our hearts, when we choose to live without attending to
her laws, she will correct us. To be a true follower of the Goddess
means to seek constantly to live in congruence with her inner laws.

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